Turbulent Grief

Long considered a second-rate Schumann in the pantheon of the Great German Composers, listeners these days want to embrace the greatness of Felix Mendelssohn. They want to hear ecstatically joyful Italian Symphonies, passionately compelling Scottish Symphonies, luminously hilarious Midsummer Night's Dream Overtures, brilliantly blissful Violin Concertos, and soulfully expressive yet deeply intellectual string quartets so they can raise Mendelssohn to the front ranks of the Great German Composers.

Unfortunately, these are not those performances. The Henschel Quartet is a fine ensemble with plenty of energy and power and it tears into Mendelssohn with a strong tone and firm control. But too often it soars over the surface of the music, leaving the soulful depths untouched. In these recordings of the E flat major and F minor String Quartets, the Henschel pushes Mendelssohn's opening Allegros and forces his closing Molto allegro and Allegro molto, missing the tension of the music in the drive to the double bar. In the Andante espressivo and the Adagio, the Henschel takes the tempos a bit too quick and stays a little ahead of the beat, missing the intensity of the music in its need to keep the music moving. For soulfully expressive and deeply intellectual recordings of Mendelssohn's string quartets, try the Budapest Quartet of the Alban Berg Quartet, or, for something more authentic, the Mosaique Quartet. Arte Nova's sound is too loud and too forward.

We've had to wait eighteen months for Tudor to complete Daskalakis and Ishay's survey of Raff's violin sonatas. The first disk (Tudor 7022 - review) was well received, revealing a warmer and more lyrical side to these works than had been displayed by the pairing of Ingolf Turban and Jascha Nemtsov with their edgy but impressive performances of the first three sonatas for cpo. The cpo project of recording all the music for violin and piano seemingly having stalled for the time being, this second disk has another Raff recording first, the emotionally charged Violin Sonata No.5.